A second attempt at installing a new Spanish parliament

The Spaniards are to cast their votes once again on June 26 because the parties couldn't agree on a government after the parliamentary elections of December 20. According to the polls the left-wing coalition Unidos Podemos may overtake the Socialists. How much pressure are the established parties really under?

Podemos would only cause problems

If the left-wing alliance Unidos Podemos ends up participating in government this will have disastrous consequences for the country, the conservative daily El Mundo warns:

“This is not a minor issue. On the contrary, both the intention of torpedoing the basis of economic recovery when Spain is just emerging from its worst crisis in decades and - worse still - the unreflected defence of the alleged 'Catalan national rights' against the current constitution are very delicate issues. And given the surveys that point to Unidos Podemos becoming the second strongest political force in our country, it cannot be denied that we are facing a serious political problem.”

Podemos does not represent new social democracy

According to a survey by the Spanish opinion research institute CIS the new left-wing alliance Unidos Podemos will succeed the Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) as the strongest centre-left party. But this doesn't mean Podemos represents a new brand of social democracy, El País stresses:

“Unidos Podemos is not a younger, more left-wing version of PSOE but a direct competitor in terms of the ideas, policies and values that characterise the social democrats in Spain and all Europe. In their understanding of representative democracy, their policies of equality and their views on the market economy, the process of European integration and the international order PSOE and Unidos Podemos are two opposed forces which, as we have seen since December 20, cannot be reconciled.”

Join forces to block a left-wing government

According to the polls only a broad coalition between the two traditional parties the People's Party (PP) and the Socialists (PSOE) can prevent a left-wing government from coming to power. But for this the PSOE must finally give up its hostile attitude towards the current prime minister, the conservative daily ABC demands:

“The bad thing is that it is still proposing the same old solution: that Rajoy steps down. They argue that no one will want to make a pact with him after June 26. And they may be right. … But how can you expect the party that won the most votes to set aside its leader who has the support of the vast majority of its members? It's true that he made mistakes, some of them grave. But it is no less true that he has dragged the country out of the economic low in which he found it. And none of his rivals has offered a plan that guarantees recovery.”